After 12 months best known for “brain rot” and “polarization,” the word of the year for 2025 clearly calls for something with more of a healing tone. Thanks to former airport chieftain and unexpected marketing genius Barry Bateman, the award-winning former director of Milwaukee’s Mitchell Regional Airport, we have a word at hand: recombobulate.
Not discombobulate. re-combobulate. As in the brilliant “Recombobulation Area” Bateman created 17 years ago to allow Milwaukee airline passengers to regroup, reframe and, in most cases, just to put their belts and shoes back on and restow their laptops.
I can’t speak for you, but I could use some recombobulating. Recent holiday travel alone – including a 48-hour round trip from New York to El Paso, Texas, during which United Airlines required not one but two O.J.-style dashes through multiple terminals to make tight connections – created emotional and physical havoc for everyone. Only now, having caught my breath, can I apologize to all those innocent travelers we pushed aside and trampled. The same to my right knee, which has already suffered through four surgeries and a recent replacement.
And that was just the capper on an interminable election season that put the term “disorientation” to the test. Axios’ Mike Allen described “stunning levels of political violence and uncertainty” that left most American minds – mine included – reeling. Joe is in; now he’s out. Kamala’s up; now she’s down. Trump? Well, he is just being Trump.
Outside of politics, Mother Nature provided little reprieve. Yes, we were captivated by the solar eclipse. And the southern dip in the Northern Lights was a wonder to behold. But discombobulating would be an understated way of describing the year’s 24 confirmed $1 billion-plus weather and climate disaster events in the United States (as of Nov. 1, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information). Making the list: 17 severe storms, four tropical cyclones, one wildfire and two winter storms. Overall, these events resulted in the deaths of 418 people. And that does not even begin to account for the multitude of their less expensive natural and humanmade cousins.
Feel a little dizzy yet? I haven’t even touched upon other discomfiting topics of note such as artificial intelligence, Elon Musk or Bennifer. I mean, will J-Lo come back? Or is Tom Brady next?
So as we turn the corner into the new year, let’s bring our attention – what’s left of it – back to Bateman. May he come out of retirement soon and spread the gospel of recombobulation far and wide. We could all use a new franchise to frequent, after all.
A stronger
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I have zero idea what you think this letter is about. Sorry but I see no profound wisdom in a new buzz word… there is no substance here except noting that this year has been a prelude to what is likely to be even a greater whirlwind of chaos. These are the “interesting times” we were always warned about and threatened with.